This recent quirky news story detailing how an entirely new species that clones itself was discovered in a diner (admittedly in rural VietNam) has me wondering a few things: 1) Are scientists no longer interested in possibly disappearing forever into swamplands (have they gone soft?) 2) If new species are to be found in diners [...]

Apparently octopi have pretty sophisticated taste – last year the news broke of seizing coconut shells and their distinct class system; are you a one-shell octopus or a two-shell? And now news that they spurn regular tv that most of us still live with but are willing to pay attention if it’s high definition. Makes [...]

You know that intro bit to Mission Impossible series: “this message will self-destruct in 5 seconds” or how ever long it was?  There is now promise of a self-erasing ink that will do just that in a pre-programmed amount of time.  Less dramatic than a disk bursting into flame but just as effective.  It’s obvious [...]

Living in America, UFOs seem like an American preoccupation.  It was interesting to see (non-serious) news regarding British UFOs although strangely the American military still seems to be the primary source regarding experimental flights and air-born equipment. Without taking it too seriously I have heard people dismiss UFO sightings because they have never heard of [...]

Mima mounds are just one of those landscape features that make most people go ‘hunh’ and move on in the guidebook.  But not everyone.  An article in the Seattle Times regarding the relatively local Mima mounds about new laser studies pointing the cause as glaciers and sun melt also revealed the impassioned opposition – who [...]

Princeton’s third Art of Science competition is online and the winners announced.  All of the images were coincidental to scientific research, not created as art.  If you’ve never considered the artistic merit of embryonic squid, here’s your chance.  Can you tell what the object is before reading the captions?

Who  would have guessed that mocking birds are better at facial recognition than the Virginia DMV?  And why aren’t we trying to use this amazing skill to tell troublesome humans from benign ones by scoping out airport security or something? Seems like there ought to be more uses for it.

Who knew that simulating the sound of water would require Cornell scientists?  Apparently it’s quite difficult. I’m still not sure they get an A+ but it’s darn close, although I suspect that holding a recording devise near the tap would have had the economic upper hand for several more years….

Recently one of those quirky news stories hit when the Virginia DMV banned smiling for driver’s license and other ID photos.  The reasoning being that it messes up the facial recognition software.  They aren’t the first state to do this although I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t get to my state before my next [...]